Last Year, Domestic Startup Investment Amounted to About 13 Trillion KRW
Five Mega Investments Exceeding 400 Billion KRW Also Recorded
Investment in domestic startups has reached an all-time high. Following IT companies and fintech (finance + technology), leisure and distribution startups such as Yanolja and Kurly have joined the ranks of 'big deal investment attraction,' receiving high evaluations for their growth potential.
◇Startup Investment Amount in 2021: 13 Trillion KRW
According to The VC, a startup investment database, the amount of investment received by domestic startups in 2021 was approximately 13 trillion KRW. This is more than double compared to the previous year (about 5 trillion KRW). It is also the first time that annual startup investment has exceeded 10 trillion KRW. The rapid growth in startup investment last year was due to an increase in big deal investments exceeding hundreds of billions of KRW. Leisure platform company Yanolja successfully attracted 2 trillion KRW in investment, and digital healthcare company Noom raised 602.7 billion KRW. Kurly, the operator of Market Kurly, also raised a total of 475.4 billion KRW through two rounds of investment in July and December last year. Toss operator Viva Republica raised 460 billion KRW, placing it among the top big deal investment recipients.
The common factor among these companies is that they were recognized for their high growth potential. Yanolja, which attracted the largest investment last year, completed an investment of about 2 trillion KRW from SoftBank, the world's second-largest unicorn investor, in July 2021. Despite the travel industry being depressed due to COVID-19, Yanolja's growth was the reason for the investment. The company internalized technologies that the market is paying attention to, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data processing, and blockchain, which enhance consumer satisfaction and increase service providers' productivity, which was also cited as a reason for the investment.
◇Kurly Receives Investment from Two of the World’s Top 10 Investors
Online grocery shopping service company Kurly secured two large investments exceeding 200 billion KRW each. In July last year, Kurly received 225.4 billion KRW from existing investors through a Series F round. Along with the Series F investment, Kurly announced plans for a domestic IPO and raised an additional 250 billion KRW from Anchor Equity in December. Kurly is known as the only domestic company simultaneously invested in by major overseas investors ranked within the world’s top 10, such as Sequoia Capital and DST Global.
Kurly is currently the largest and fastest-growing direct purchase grocery shopping company in Asia. In May 2015, it pioneered the dawn delivery grocery shopping market by introducing Korea’s first 7-day-a-week dawn delivery and full cold chain delivery system. Despite competitors such as large corporations entering the online grocery shopping market, Kurly maintains the number one market share. Industry experts expect Kurly’s growth potential to continue as the traditionally offline-focused domestic grocery shopping market, which was relatively slow to transition online compared to other markets, is rapidly shifting online. Kurly’s cumulative number of subscribers has exceeded 10 million, and the repurchase rate of new customers surpasses 75%, which is three times higher than that of similar companies in the industry.
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